Metro News & Reviews

Another Kinkisharyo light rail vehicle begins testing on the Green Line

A new Kinkisharyo light rail car being transported from Palmdale to the Metro Green Line for testing. Photo: Metro

Sharp-eyed train spotters along the Metro Green Line might see the second of the new Kinkisharyo light rail vehicles undergoing testing this week. The train car pictured was transported last night from the assembly facility in Palmdale. The Kinkisharyo P3010 is the new generation car being assembled in Palmdale and will see service on the Metro Expo and Gold Line.

The first Kinkisharyo 3010 pilot car went into testing on October 17, 2014 along the Metro Green Line. Many months of testing will be conducted before delivery of 175 new rail cars (78 in the initial order and another 97 from exercising two options).

Purchase of the light rail vehicles and expansion of the Gold and Expo lines are largely funded by Measure R, a half-cent sales tax increase approved by two million Los Angeles County voters in 2008, with additional funding from state and other sources.

I just got back from a trip to the East Coast and stayed in Jersey City, NJ for most of the time. They have a light rail line there with Kinkisharyo vehicles. I tell ya, those things are slick and smooth. We are in for a treat when those new cars start running on the Metro.

Are the Kinkisharyo cars any wider than the cars currently in use on the Gold Line? I hope so, because I’m 5’11” 170 (i.e. not a huge guy) and I find those trains very cramped. The seats are narrow, with insufficient legroom. Would like to see trains more like those in use on the Red Line.

I can’t remember the exact specs, but the new cars have seats that are a little bit wider. Anecdotally, as a person who rides the Gold Line regularly and has also sat in the new rail car, it doesn’t feel any different though. 🙁

The MBTA Green Line’s 3600-series and 3700-series cars are by Kinkisharyo. So is the current active fleet of the VTA, in San Jose. Ditto for Sound Transit’s line running between Seattle and Sea-Tac Airport, and Dallas’s entire DART trolley fleet (except for the various and sundry antique cars running on the free McKinney Avenue M-line).

Those updates are in the works. If Kinkisharyo gets the contract, they might expand the Palmdale facility. And if any of the agencies that James and Elson noted above need new cars, maybe they will get them from Palmdale too. 🙂

I read an overview about new subway cars a little while ago. They’re looking for bidders and want to replace the older ones, then the newer ones later. I recall it mentioning the older cars being replaced in the next 10 years.

It would be very difficult and still likely require a truck to get the light rail vehicle to and from a freight train and to Division 22 in Lawndale. This is the much more practical approach and there’s no real reason to use a train other than sentimental purposes in this case.